Wednesday, September 21, 2011

September 20, 2011

Fam!,

Ola, family, I hope everything is great with you all and from all of the emails sounds like it!! .. Congrats Grandma on getting that new shed I am really looking forward to seeing it when it is all done!! and how all the berries are still doing great so you have tons of that great freezer jam! ..

This week was pretty good. Gotta see some friends from where I used to be that was pretty cool, gemias ;)! It was not like last week, but you can't have mountains without valleys! right?! So we just keep going on and doing our best! .. this week I studied more about the Book of Mormon and the role it has in the conversion of converts and how I can use it better. So I'm starting to figure out that when you are trying to grow and get better at one thing Satan likes to put little obstacles in your path to trip you up and the Lord lets him so we can grow and become stronger. So our week was a little slow but we WORKED our bunda´s off!! And we feel like we are kinda stagnant but I know the hard work paid off somewhere and eventually we will collect on what we did. I think the crowning moment that really let me know that Satan's working just as hard as we are is we found a family who when we went in I thought was going to be a great lesson but it turned out to be them preaching to us that we are wrong and we need to "open our minds" to the words of God. And I've never seen a wife and husband be greatly united for a sad and wrong cause. That might sound a little overbearing but as I sat there and Elder Hubbard was telling me we should go I couldn´t get out of my seat. Because I felt so bad for them and what they are teaching their children. They had great intentions but they are letting what they think they know ruin their chances of what they CAN know. And in the end, we couldn't help them in the least bit. I feel and what really sparked my attention to help me see that this week was about my own conversion to the Book of Mormon was the fact that the Mom of the family challenged us to pray and to fast to know that the Book of Mormon is the doctrine of men. And when she said that I knew who was really using her, and who was really saying that. And all in all, all I could do is ask them to pray to know what we said was true and that I knew what God would answer.

I've thought more and more about my personal love for the Book of Mormon and the love I have for him. I love that book and will never deny or apologize to anyone that I know that book is true. I still remember when the Lord helped me to know that for myself through the Holy Ghost and without a doubt no evil spirit could put such feelings of love, joy, and peace in my heart in that moment. I know it was an answer to my prayers. I am so grateful that I can say that I took the challenge and that is the reason I am out here. I am so grateful that I can say more than I just know the Book of Mormon is true but that I have felt for myself that this Book is divine in every way, and was revealed to a prophet in our days to clarify the doctrines that are so well distorted and hidden by men. He was a prophet of God and is a prophet of God. I support and sustain President Thomas S. Monson as the prophet today and I have grown to love him and his name with a Portuguese accent! ha.